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Any Inventor Types Looking For A Project

Ken K

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Just been reading some of @Thunderdrones posts re new products he's going to be introducing and thought I'd throw this out.
My concept would involve a device built around a miniature liquid CO2 cartridge such as those used in paint ball guns (link: https://www.amazon.ca/Valken-12gram...tridges&qid=1550358652&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr1 ).
The device, attached to a drone, would inflate a balloon if submerged, shoot a parachute clear of a drone, act as an "air horn", or whatever.
Anyone care to pitch in here's welcome. :)
 
Have you thought of how the device would know that it's submerged? Maybe a pressure sensor. Also, would the balloon be self-sealing after it is inflated?

I think its a great idea for those who fly over water. Just knowing approximately where your drone is would save hours of SAR.

How about a waterproof case for tracking device? Im sure they have those already.
 
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Have you thought of how the device would know that it's submerged? Also, would the balloon be self-sealing after it is inflated?

I think its a great idea for those who fly over water. How about a waterproof case for tracking device? Im sure they have those already.

Hmmmmm....... Maybe a small valve between the cartridge and the balloon. A spring, restricted by a water soluble disc, would open the valve, kinda like a fire sprinkler head only water activated instead of heat.
Wouldn't be able to fly in wet conditions unless the water soluble material was shielded and had to be actually submerged.
Maybe some kind of pressure sensor would work.
I don't know. That's why I thought maybe someone else would like to fly with it.
 
This has been "solved" with self-inflating lift-jackets. There is the type that has a
"dissolving bobbin" that fairly quickly dissolves in water, releasing a spring-loaded mechanism that punctures the CO2 cartridge, releasing the gas into a bladder for inflation.

Then there is a hydrostatic model that does works on pressure - does not take a lot of depth - perhaps only a foot, if that, and it will inject the cartridge and release. The advantage of these is it takes this pressure - vs. the bobbins that can go off when you don't want them to due to high moisture / humidity having softened it, or rain

Here is an example of the hydrostatic version - the cartridge had "expired" so I decided to let my son test it before replacing it with a new one :)

The bobbin recharge kits are around $50ish range, but the hydrostatic ones are more like $80ish. They are also fairly large in comparison to a Mavic 2 class drone - but given there would not be a need for as much inflation, perhaps a much smaller cartridge could be used and it could be downscalled / weigh-reduced.
 
How about a waterproof case for tracking device? Im sure they have those already.

Would greatly depend on the tracking device's wireless technology - many wireless signals of the class used for remote controls and such would be greatly attenuated, if not blocked completely, by just a foot or so of water. I have a "automatic" kill-switch for my boat that relys on this principle - you wear a transmitter and if you fall overboard the signal link is broken to the receiver and it then throws a solenioid to kill the motor....
 
Note, I had hoped that this concept is what the "GetterBack" device was - however it has just enough inflation to eject the "float" portion from the base to which it is tethered, and it more of a locator so that you can then find and pull it up - vs. actually floating the drone up to the surface.

In either event, the drone is likely toast, but hopefully recovered to send in to DJI Care and/or claim to insurance, but m concern with the GetterBack is 1) the "float" is pretty small and could be hard to spot, and more importantly, 2) it only has 100' of line, so if you're in deeper waters (the lake I fish has waters over 200' in places), you'd be out of luck - plus it has the potential to get tangled in submerged trees / structure - whereas something with a much more positive buoyancy would hopefully prevent the drone from ever getting to the bottom (or to submerged trees) - also, the less depth it goes down to, the less pressure and *maybe* a better chance of less water intrusion / damage.
 
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